“Together, how will we begin to host and harvest conversations

that matter in service of Kenya’s future?”

Day three - BLOSSOM

Check in - welcoming new people

Teaching - Divergent Convergent and designing spaces for hosting

Pro Action Cafe on two projects: Mango girls secondary schools and Food Systems in Kenya

Check out and witnessing circle

3 days of nurturing seeds for Kenya

Art of Hosting Kenya 2013

Three days of nurturing seeds for Kenya, learning the Art of Hosting

and Harvesting conversations, and looking courageously into the future.

Thank you for the generous support and sponsorship from Caritas Austria.

Day one - ROOTS Why are we here and what do you remember?

Welcome - frame - check in

Teaching the different levels of Art of Hosting - signing up for practice Remembering our stories - when did you feel proud to be Kenyan?

What supports strong roots in Kenya and what do we dream of?

Being in conversation about Kenya and our work

Feeding forward from yesterday - Four Fold Practice

What practices sustain and nourish us, what are our learning edges? World Cafe: What time time is it in Kenya? What role can we play in

creating the future we want to see? Open Space - Check out

Day two - TRUNK

Day three - BLOSSOM Check in and feedforward - welcoming new people

Teaching: Divergence Convergence and Design

ProAction Cafe on two projects: Mango Girls Secondary School and Food Systems in urban growing centers in Kenya

Check out and witnessing circle

Everybody is a teacher, everybody is a student. Our roots are the same

How to involve community in solving their problems?

Check in

How to resolve conflict of land and water so we can move forward?

How to involve community in solving their problems?

Participatory leadership, what is

working, can we bring

back what we’ve lost?

Be better change makers.

What’s my path in this world?

Building bridges. I know

how to do this

Change the way that

education works. Involve

children in decision

making

How can we localise Art

of Hosting and make it

simple?

This is a personal

work journey

We are loosing our essence. Can we remember with the current pace of Africa?

Who are you and what inspired you to say yes to this invitation?

Consolata’s story was about the

presidential award she received in

2008 for the community work she

did with the NGO called Mango

Tree. The award was for helping

people to improve their lives and

empowering them to take care of

orphans in the community. The

Prime Minister wrote to Mango Tree

that this was a model that should be

replicated not only in Kenya but also

in other African countries.

THE GANG

WHAT DO YOU DREAM OF NOW FOR KENYA? CHARISMATIC LEADERS WHO LOOK AT NEEDS AND RESPOND WITH LOVE AND CARE. A MORE UNITED KENYA NOT TRIBAL DIVIDED. A LESS POLITICAL SOCIETY WHERE WE COME UP WITH OUR OWN SOLUTIONS - A SENSE OF PRIDE

Story telling

Consolata’s role model was her mother, a very inspiring woman full of faith

and a big heart for people. She believed in discovering the good in

everybody. Inspired by God she first became a nun and her motto was to

listen and talk to people, mobilize resources and to educate. Then she felt

she could do more outside the structure of the convent and studied Social

Ministry. After graduation, Mango Tree International hired her. She wants to

bring back African models of childcare, putting children in orphanages is not

good. The children are loosing their roots. It is much better that they are

kept in their community. “How did Africa deal with the poor and orphans in

the past?”. Finding African solutions to African problems.

How to involve community in solving their problems?

This is a personal

work journey

Hosting ourselves - The Four Fold Practice

WHAT IS THE EDGE OF LEARNING I AM STANDING ON RIGHT NOW?

DOING MORE OF WHAT I KNOW NOT LEARNING MORE

PRACTICING PATIENCE AND STOP POINTING FINGERS AT MYSELF

GETTING OUT OF MY HEAD

LETTING IT BE, JUST BE ME

GET MY PRIORITIES RIGHT AND ORGANISE MY TIME BETTER

THE WORLD VIEW IS SO DIFFICULT TO LET GO OF

WHERE DO I FIT IN KENYA OR EGYPT?

NOT BEING A PERFECTIONIST

FINDING MY NEXT LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP

HOW DO I CHOOSE?

WHAT NURTURES US WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH?

BEAUTY

CHI GONG

MOVEMENTS

MEDITATION

MY LIFE FORCE, MY ROCK, MY ANCHOR

JOY

LIGHT

GRATITUDE

PRAYER

GOING SLOW

TOUCHING THE SOIL

LEARNING TO BE OK

SEEING GOOD IN PEOPLE

World Café

We need to start from where we are

Linkage and bridges

Being fire-keepers

Ecosystem as a container to host us

No borders

Catalysts for change

Build love, peace and harmony

We are all connected

Women are magic

GOLD NUGGETS

Open Space

Power napping

Working in spaces/places where hope is lost

32

Open Space Technology (OST)Open Space Technology is a process designed to facilitate parallel working/dialogue sessions around a central theme of strategic importance. Participants create and manage their own agenda by convening and engaging around issues of concern to them. This dynamic process invites people to boldly speak to their passion and take the lead in stewarding its development toward the collective vision. The outcome of each conversation is reported back to the whole group to bring everyone up to speed with possibilities and opportunities for collaboration. It can be used for strategic direction-setting, envisioning the future, morale building, stakeholder consultation, and collaboration. OST may be less suited as an opening methodology, prior to the group getting more comfortable with working together and in participatory ways. ‘Discovered’ by Harrison Owen.

Pro Action Café (PC)!is process was developed to deepen the level of inquiry into speci"c projects, leading to wiser and more collectively informed actions. It is a relatively new methodology that combines the conversation clusters and rounds of World Café with the participant created agenda of Open Space Technology. Participants bring their speci"c projects to three rounds of deep and focused conversation to discuss the ‘quest’ behind the question, what might be missing and the next steps toward action. It is well-suited for the strategic prioritization and action planning stages, bringing the added bene"t of cross-pollinating projects with insights and ideas from di#erent departments within an organization, or di#erent viewpoints within a community. Its strength lies in the deep level of inquiry into a speci"c project, the opportunity to access a diverse range of perspectives to strengthen the outcome, and the resulting awareness of the scope of projects within the group. !is methodology was originally developed by Art of Hosting practitioners Rainer von Leoprechting and Ria Beck for use in policy making within the European Commission.

!e Weave – Dialogue-Based Methodologies

Conversations between people of conflicting interests

How can we make the AOH practice grow in Kenya?

How to hold space for cultural awesomeness?

Creating and maintaining healthy conversation between people of conflicting interests?

How do you hold a space when one individual’s mission is to destroy/destabilise?

31

!e Circle (TC)!e Circle is an ancient form of meeting used to invite people into shared leadership and participation through thoughtful speaking and deep listening. Participants sit in a circle and use agreements, practices and principles designed to care for the well-being of all. It is regularly used to open and close an engagement, and at times during the process. In opening the engagement, it brings focus to the purpose, invites each person into an equal role, brings the participants’ attention to the present moment and their intention to the well-being of the whole group. To close the engagement, the circle provides a way to ‘check out’ by allowing each person to speak to the center. !e question for inviting people into any opening circle stems from the simple query, ‘why are you here?’ It can be expanded in many ways to invite participants to share why they care about the purpose from a personal and/or professional level. Closing questions center around ‘what am I taking with me from our shared work?’

World Café (WC)!e World Cafe is a collective conversation with an overarching theme. Participants move between conversation clusters (café-style tables) in successive rounds (usually three), sharing ideas and insights. A “host” remains at each table to share key insights and questions with new participants in each round, and harvest the "nal results. O#en used early in a process, World Café creates the space for individual relationships of trust and transparency to form. Within a very short time, every person in the room will have had deep conversation with as many as twelve others. !ere are many times throughout an engagement where the bene"ts of dialogue in a ‘Café’ setting can bring clarity to the collective intelligence of the group. It can be useful at the earlier stages of the engagement, for example, to explore sustainability in the context of the participants’ personal and professional lives, to surface current strengths and challenges, or for a high level sustainability principles analysis. !is methodology is also suggested as appropriate for reconvening to assess progress on the strategic action plan. Co-founded by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs.

!e Weave – Dialogue-Based Methodologies

SESSIONS:

What’s happening in Kenya and what role can we play to contribute to the future we want to see?

What do I want to explore further in more depth ?

How to involve community in solving their problems?

ProAction Café

HARVESTTIME TO WALK AROUND AND TRAVEL BACK

AND SEE WHERE WE CAME FROM. TIME TO

SHARE HOW WE ARE FEELING NOW AFTER

THREE DAYS OF BEING WITH EACH OTHER

IN LEARNING, EXPLORING AND SHARING

OUR KNOWLEDGE, PASSION AND SKILLS.

32

Open Space Technology (OST)Open Space Technology is a process designed to facilitate parallel working/dialogue sessions around a central theme of strategic importance. Participants create and manage their own agenda by convening and engaging around issues of concern to them. This dynamic process invites people to boldly speak to their passion and take the lead in stewarding its development toward the collective vision. The outcome of each conversation is reported back to the whole group to bring everyone up to speed with possibilities and opportunities for collaboration. It can be used for strategic direction-setting, envisioning the future, morale building, stakeholder consultation, and collaboration. OST may be less suited as an opening methodology, prior to the group getting more comfortable with working together and in participatory ways. ‘Discovered’ by Harrison Owen.

Pro Action Café (PC)!is process was developed to deepen the level of inquiry into speci"c projects, leading to wiser and more collectively informed actions. It is a relatively new methodology that combines the conversation clusters and rounds of World Café with the participant created agenda of Open Space Technology. Participants bring their speci"c projects to three rounds of deep and focused conversation to discuss the ‘quest’ behind the question, what might be missing and the next steps toward action. It is well-suited for the strategic prioritization and action planning stages, bringing the added bene"t of cross-pollinating projects with insights and ideas from di#erent departments within an organization, or di#erent viewpoints within a community. Its strength lies in the deep level of inquiry into a speci"c project, the opportunity to access a diverse range of perspectives to strengthen the outcome, and the resulting awareness of the scope of projects within the group. !is methodology was originally developed by Art of Hosting practitioners Rainer von Leoprechting and Ria Beck for use in policy making within the European Commission.

!e Weave – Dialogue-Based Methodologies

“ANYONE WHO CREATES MAGIC

IS MY FRIEND.”

“BEHIND THOSE CHILDISH EYES

THERE IS A SHARP MIND.”

“YOU HAVE TAKEN ENCHANTED

PATH AND YOUR PASSION

CALLS FOR THAT.”

Witnessing circle, offering and receiving gifts and checking out:

“IT HAS BEEN THE TRUTH I

HAVE BEEN SPEA

KING.”

“AFRICAN MAMA WITH A

BIG HEART.”

“I don’t know where I’m going but the journey is wonderful”. “I don’t know where you’re going either but the people who will meet you we’ll be blessed to have you.”

“You are an inquisitive catalyst

for change.

You have a permanent smile and beautifu

l

eyes. You are deeply connecte

d to your

roots, you are humble and caring.

Kenya

needs a lot of you.”

“NOW YOU HAVE SOME MATES

TO ORGANISE THE NEXT ART

OF HOSTING. YOU ARE SO

RESILIENT AND HAVE A BIG

HEART.”

“I am in love with you. You are a beam of light and an inspiration to your students.”

“YOU ARE A FIRE CRACKER,

ENERGETIC FREE SPIRIT. YOU

B R I N G S U R P R I S E S A N D

UNPREDICTABILITY, HEALTHY

CRAZINESS. A LIVING WILD

WOMAN.”

“You are a young energy, don’t be afraid of yourself.”

“You are like Mercury, so resilient.

Great things were started by few

people.”

“You are an amazing woman with a bright future for Kenya. You are always looking for the goodness within people.”

“You are a down to earth person, a fire carrier. You have a good smile.”

Work like this, feels forme so light and rightIt is a miracle!

It was a joy to be hereI could be myselfI will never be the same

Thank you It was very naturalI am very glad to experience Art of Hosting life

Unique is that I willremember the importance of reflectionYou get a deeper levelThe real needs that needs To be done

You made me feelMyself again. We wereAuthentic and true

It’s been a journey. IWill use it to enrich myWork

I really don’t knowWhere I am going, but itis filled with richness

There was a place forSilence, to reflect, to be.It made me fall in lovewith Kenya again.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Contact details for AoH Kenya:

Judith Stemerdink-Herret Tel +254 788 516 866aohinkenya@gmail.com

Contact details hosting team:

Linda Joy Mitchell www.lindajoymitchell.org.uk linda@lindajoymitchell.org.uk

Silas Lusiasslusias@gmail.com

Art of Hosting international webpage:www.artofhosting.org www.artofhosting.ning.com